By: Kaitlin Sepanek
On September 16, 2020 I interviewed Sam Moffet at my apartment before we had dinner.
They are a musician form West Hartford, CT. They went to Berklee in their younger years, but finished their Bachelors and Masters of Music Theory at The Hartt School of music.
During this interview, I was curious of their experiences as a student and then as a teacher and how their opinion of music education philosophy has changed or not changed throughout their schooling.
“What is your philosophy of Music Education?”
- “My philosophy has always been that we have to learn from everything that we have available to us… which is a lot at the moment. We don’t have to look far to get the information we need. I was fortunate enough to be in college when technology took a new leap in education and Spotify was a thing, and still is… so why aren’t we changing the way we learn?”
Americans must be flexible when it comes to technology in the classroom and advancements in education. With everything online, teachers have had to adapt and overcome challenges they had no idea were possible, however, the students did too.
I believe that all teachers should be able to explain one thing in at least seven different ways. A student will learn best one of these ways and will benefit from learning like this. It is also the job of the student to adapt to different teaching styles in order to get the most out of their learning experience.
Sam also talked about the struggles as a new teacher and how they were thrown into a position they were not ready for: a teaching fellowship.
“It was my first day as an educator and I was so nervous, I had been having nightmares about it for weeks prior… I was scared to death of what these music education students at such a refined university would think of me: a music theory major who wants to learn how to break apart and compose music. I had no idea that I would learn so much from my students and make connections that would last a lifetime.”
When I was interviewing Sam, I remembered my first class with them and they were right: They had dropped papers at the beginning of class, fumbled around with the smartboard until they finally gave up and used the white board.
As a future educator, It is my job to research how children and people of all ages learn and respond to certain techniques. Although teachers should be flexible in their teaching style, it is important to have a center or basis of teaching so that the students will have a sense of normalcy and schedule in the classroom. Most importantly, it is up to the student to decide how they learn best and how they can benefit from any education.
